1861.] 
101 
The progress of the Kashmir Series. 
cases to 8000 feet above tbe sea, though seldom under 10,000 feet. 
It includes at least 300* square miles of glaciers for the most part 
of the larger kind. Those glaciers already surveyed to the north 
of the Sliayok have proved to be quite as large as the ones pre- 
viously measured, t by those very able and energetic topographical 
surveyors Captain Austen and Lieut. Melville of the Kashmir Series, 
near the Kun and Nun peaks in the Wurdwan and Sooroo dis- 
tricts. Captain Austen’s ground in one part rose to nearly 27,000 
feet, and one of the glaciers in the highest ground is about 11 miles 
in length and from f to If miles in breadth. In Lieut. Melville’s 
work, the peaks ran up to nearly 24,000 and under Kun one of the - 
glaeiers is about 10 miles long and from f to If miles broad. Glaciers 
are in fact in this section of the Himalayas very much larger and 
more numerous than in any part of the Himalayas previously survey- 
ed. Possibly this is in some measure due to the latitude, as all 
these glaciers lie between latitudes 33° and 36° north, but it must 
also be partly the result of the immense height of the peaks gener- 
ally as, with the exception of those of Nepal, they exceed all other 
peaks of the Himalayas that have as yet been measured. 
The glaciers in the neighbourhood of the Nanga Parbat and K (2) 
have not as yet been explored : they will undoubtedly be large, and 
those of the latter at any rate are, from all that has been seen and 
heard, likely to prove even larger than the ones already measured. 
Prom 3 to 4 marches are occupied in crossing the glacier at the head 
of the Braldo' branch of the Shigar river. 
The whole of the country sketched was of a very difficult char- 
acter, testing both the physical and artistic powers of the surveyors 
to the utmost in moving about and delineating the country. Cir- 
cumstances permitting, the whole of the glaciers in the neighbour- 
hood of the Nanga Parbat and of K (2) will be explored 'during the 
next field season, as will those of Zanskar and other places. There 
is hardly any portion of the upper valley of the Indus without gla- 
ciers, but they are largest and abound most near the great Hima- 
* Lieut. Melville’s Sections measured 198 square miles; Capt. Austen’s 
estimated, 150 square miles, ill other Sections, 50 square miles. Total, 398 
square miles. 
t Iu 1858 and 1859. 
o 2 
